Durban: The City of uMhlathuze has urged Eskom to restore power in areas in Esikhawini, near Richards Bay, with immediate effect and deal with illegal connections later.
This comes after angry residents embarked on violent protests after experiencing ongoing power outages due to illegal connections.
The community has been protesting since Monday, blockading the roads with burning tyres and rubble.
Electricity transformers and network signal towers were torched.
Public transport was also affected, with commuters left stranded and without transport to work and school.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele confirmed the incident and said roads were blocked throughout the day yesterday. She said the police were at the scene to monitor and stabilise the situation.
Eskom spokesperson, Stefanie Jansen Van Rensburg said the extent of illegal and unsafe electricity related activities uncovered in Esikhawini in KwaZulu-Natal had led to it leaving electricity supply to parts of the town interrupted.
Jansen van Rensburg said that this would continue until this “unacceptable” situation has been rectified.
She added that the current vandalism of Eskom equipment by distraught community members was making matters worse, and would result in further delays and even longer interruptions.
“Esikhawini residents have been experiencing frequent and extended outages due to illegal connections and meter bypassing that resulted in the overloading of networks. Electricity supply to parts of the town was lost once again during peak hours.
“Eskom took the decision to leave the power supply switched off until the audits currently being conducted in the area are complete. The same will apply when supply to other parts of Esikhawini are interrupted due to overloading,” said Jansen van Rensburg.
She said electricity theft in Esikhawini has resulted in huge financial losses to Eskom as revenue was not recovered.
“Since audits commenced on Friday, 18 June, close to 30 illegal connections have been removed. About 19 out of 20 households were either illegally connected or had tampered with their meters and are, therefore, not paying for electricity.”
The ongoing protest has also affected those whose power was supplied by the municipality, as protesters torched municipal transformers.
A resident, who asked not to be named, said the aggrieved community claimed that if they don’t have power, then everyone must suffer, including those who get it from the municipality.
“Our food is getting spoilt, and we don’t have any other choice but to throw away the rotten food. It’s sad because people don’t understand that they should be fighting Eskom or pay for electricity rather than fighting the municipality customers,” said the resident.
Mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo said they met with the Eskom management responsible for the Empangeni region on Wednesday to address the concerns and how they were impacting the municipality.
Mhlongo said the electricity outages were also affecting water supply.
“This is now leading to water interruptions because the whole of Esikhaleni Cluster is supplied by Cubhu Lake that has no power. The blockages of the roads and burning of municipal and government infrastructure now prevents our municipal vehicles from even sending diesel to the generators at Cubhu, which then means we are not pumping a single drop to the system,” he said.
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